Avoidance in negative ties: Inhibiting closure, reciprocity, and homophily

• Main Authors: HARRIGAN, Nicholas, YAP, Janice
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2017
• Subjects: Negative ties; Signed ties; Social networks; Closure; Reciprocity; Homophily; Social Psychology and Interaction; Sociology of Culture
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/2047; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/soss_research/article/3304/viewcontent/SocialNetworks2017_Avoidanceinnegativeties_av.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

Theorising of negative ties has focused on simplex negative tie networks or multiplex signed tie networks. We examine the fundamental differences between positive and negative tie networks measured on the same set of actors. We test six mechanisms of tie formation on face-to-face positive (affect/esteem) and negative (dislike/disesteem) networks of 282 university students. While popularity, activity, and entrainment are present in both networks, closure, reciprocity, and homophily are largely absent from negative tie networks. We argue this arises because avoidance is inherent to negative sentiments. Avoidance reduces information transfer through negative ties and short-circuits cumulative causation. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.